Use “distributed Practice” to Better Remember What You Learn

Obviously, there’s no point in studying if you don’t remember what you’ve covered when exam time comes, and one of the best ways to retain that knowledge is to maintain a particularly rigorous study schedule. This method is called “distributed practice” and here’s how it works.

What is distributed practice?

Distributed practice, like some of the most common learning methods , has its origins in the work of Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who studied memory. Over 100 years ago, he studied nonsense syllables over and over again to find the best way to remember them. He found that the frequency with which he studied them, as well as the order in which he studied them, affected how well he remembered them.

Ultimately, his discoveries led to the development of what we now know as distributed practice, which, according to Purdue University, is just a fancy name for distributing study sessions in a specific way and studying the same subject each time. Essentially, this is the opposite of “mass practice,” better known as rote learning. Instead of studying everything in one block before the test, you study it in small chunks before the test.

How do you distribute your practice?

The trick here is to decide how often to conduct training sessions. Purdue recommends setting aside 50 minutes each day to study, but leaving one day a week free from studying. However, what you study during the allotted time each day depends on your testing schedule.

Look ahead to your study plans and mark all exam dates in your planner. According to one study, the best option for maximizing retention is to study the same topic every 10-30% of the time it takes you to retain it. This means that if you have a test in 10 days, you will study every one to three days from then until then.

This is where retrieval practice comes in. During the first few study sessions, you simply study as usual, using techniques such as SQ3R or KWL for active reading. However, after this, you should use active recall strategies to retrieve the information you already knew during the study sessions. The best way to do this is to use flashcards, especially the Leitner system, to review content you already know at specific intervals based on how well you have mastered it.

However, the most important part of distributed practice is repeating content over and over again on a fixed schedule—even if this means simply re-reading and reviewing the material every four days, it will be more useful than cramming.